This is the sixth sermon in a series I have been doing on the life of David. I may go back and post the other five if I get enough positive reaction. My mom wanted to read my sermons, so I am going to start trying to post them here weekly. I am open to comments and criticism, but please keep it civil and if you have a problem with something I say then you can pm me on Facebook or send an email. I pray that God's word blesses you as much as it does me when I study it for these sermons.
- Cap'n Pastor Ken
1 Samuel 25
2 A certain man in Maon, who had
property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three
thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. 3 His name was Nabal and his wife’s
name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband
was surly and mean in his dealings—he was a Calebite.
4 While
David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5 So he
sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in
my name. 6 Say to him: ‘Long life to
you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is
yours!
7 “‘Now
I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did
not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was
missing. 8 Ask
your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men,
since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David
whatever you can find for them.’”9 When David’s men arrived,
they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.
10 Nabal
answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many
servants are breaking away from their masters these days. 11 Why
should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my
shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”
12 David’s
men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. 13 David
said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David
strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two
hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 One
of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the
wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15 Yet
these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we
were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16 Night
and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep
near them. 17 Now think it over and see
what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole
household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
18 Abigail
acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five
dressed sheep, five seahs[b] of roasted grain,
a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded
them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll
follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
Heroes
I am a big fan of comic book superheroes.
This past week, I had the chance to see the new movie Man of Steel about
Superman. On the 4th of July,
I proudly wore my Captain America shirt.
There is something about these heroes that we appreciate. Maybe because we live in a world where we so
often see evil having its way, it is nice to see good triumph over evil in
these superhero stories. Sadly, in real
life we do not have superheroes with super powers who can fly, throw cars
around, or shoot lasers from their eyes.
But I think another thing that superheroes teach us is that there are
heroes found in ordinary people who do extraordinary things. You won’t see any movies made of these
heroes, and they hardly get any recognition.
They are often called unsung heroes.
Today’s scripture is the story of one of those unsung heroes.
David – the Superhero
We often see these larger than life characters in the scriptures that
seem like Biblical versions of Superheroes.
David is one of those characters.
He starts out as a shepherd boy, but then we find out he has already
killed lions and bears with his bare hands even as a boy. He shows up at the battle lines and faces
down the biggest guy out there and takes him down. He becomes a leader in Israel’s armies and
wins every battle he fights, earning the love and respect of all Israel. Even when Saul comes after him, David seems
to have powers of invisibility to stay away from him. When David has the chance to
take Saul's life, he does what any superhero would do and spares his life. David is the kind of hero that
would sell a lot of comic books and movies.
But in this story, we will find that David is not perfect. For the time being, Saul has stopped pursuing
David and the two men have gone their separate ways. Saul went back to Israel and David and his
men made their living in the wilderness.
They happened upon a wealthy man named Nabal with 3000 sheep who had
reached the time of year to shear the sheep.
This was usually a time of celebration and feasting. Many sheep would also be slaughtered to
provide meat for the rest of the year.
This process of shearing and preparation for the feast was a common
occurrence, and all the bandits knew when that time rolled around. It was very common for men like Nabal to lose
a lot of sheep to thieves and have a lot of servants killed as well.
Enter our superhero, David, and his small army. They offered their services during this time
and kept watch on Nabal’s property. The
Bible tells us that not one thing was lost during this time, a very rare
occurrence! But David, the one who
fought for truth and justice was making sure all the bad guys stayed away. After the shearing was done, David then had a
request. Nabal was very wealthy and had
more than enough food and drink to last a long time. In exchange for his services, David requested
some supplies for his men. This was
pretty much expected in this area of the world at this time. It was almost like an unwritten law that you
provided hospitality to those who helped you out.
Nabal’s response reveals that he lives up to his name, which actually
means “fool.” He basically said, “I
don’t know David, so why should I give him anything?” When David received Nabal’s response, he
reacts in a way that is uncharacteristic.
David loses his cool. He tells
his men to get their swords and get ready for battle, because they are going
after Nabal for this insult! This is the
same David who just recently showed great wisdom in sparing the life of King
Saul, and now he loses his temper with Nabal, intending to kill him and all the
men of his household. Our superhero is not being very heroic. Maybe a
weakness has been revealed. Whatever the
case, David is about to make a horrible mistake, and several people, most of
them innocent, are about to lose their lives.
Enter the Unsung Hero
That’s when we first hear about another hero. Abigail is far from a superhero. She is not a prophet, a priest, or an
anointed king. She is not a fighter or a
skilled diplomat. She is a woman, and in
that day it meant she was more like a piece of property than a person. She was probably forced to marry Nabal
because it was a good deal for her father.
But rather than accept her station and just let things happen, she
decided to be a hero.
She must have already developed a reputation as being intelligent and
being willing to listen, because one of the servants went to her with the
news: Nabal is being a fool again. This time he has gone and made the wrong man
angry! There are four hundred armed men
heading our way, and it looks like they have murder on their minds. Most women would have just let the men handle
things, but there was something about Abigail that made her a hero in this
story.
1. Abigail was a woman of
action. In verse 25, we read, “Abigail acted
quickly.” She was aware of the
situation, she knew the right thing to do, and she did it. I believe that someone who is a hero is
someone who takes action where others may just sit back and watch. James agrees.
He writes in 4:17, “17 If
anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for
them.” That’s pretty heavy words! Not only should people of God act but we are
actually committing sin if we are in the position to do the right thing and
fail to do so.
A few weeks ago at the Daytona NASCAR race, there was a bad accident that
sent pieces of cars flying into the stands.
One man was struck by a tire in the chest and had several broken ribs. Thankfully, there was a military doctor in
the stands nearby, and he immediately took action. He did what he was trained to do on the
battlefield to help stabilize the man and get him to an ambulance. The injured man survived thanks to the
doctor’s quick action. Sometimes God has
the right person in the right place at the right time to do the right thing,
but that person still has to be willing to act.
Maybe you will be given the chance to make a difference in someone’s
life, and I pray that you are ready to act when the chance comes.
2. Abigail was courageous. The
word courageous means a person who is not deterred by danger or pain. Abigail knew that her husband would be very
angry and that she could be putting herself in danger, but she knew that none
of that would matter if she did not get to David before he got to them. She was willing to risk her own well-being to
do the right thing and fix this bad situation.
I appreciate those who have courage to put themselves in harms way for
others. I think of our military men and
women who sacrifice time with their families and volunteer to go to hostile
places to defend the freedom they believe in.
I also think of the firemen and policemen who respond immediately when
tragedies happen, putting the lives and safety of others ahead of their
own. It was tragic to see the firemen
lost in the fires last week, but I know they would willingly step in harms way
again if they thought it would help put that fire out.
But you don’t have to step into a warzone or a raging inferno to be courageous. We often think that a person who has courage
is not afraid, but that is not true.
Courage means that even when you are afraid, you still move
forward. Now more than ever, we need
Christians who have courage. We need
Christian parents and grandparents who will stand up and tell the world, “I
will raise my children to know what is right and wrong by God’s standards and
not by yours!” But don’t limit it to
your children. Have the courage to teach
other children right and wrong too, because we have many children out there with no guidance or the wrong guidance.
I will tell you that if we leave it up to our
secular society to raise our children, then we will continue to see more and
more of our children turn to homosexuality.
We will see more teenage pregnancy. We will see more teen suicide. Did you know that suicide is the third
leading cause of death in America among young people? So many people feel they have no reason to
live, because they have not been taught about Jesus and do not have the family of God to lean upon, and that is because we
have not had the courage to witness to them.
Abigail saved lives with her courage, and we can too!
3. Abigail was humble. I
say that we need to take action and have the courage to stand up for what we
believe, but there is a right and wrong way to go about it. When Abigail approached David, she got off
her donkey and bowed down with her face to the ground as a sign of
surrender. It is ironic that this is the
same posture David took when he approached Saul in the previous chapter. Abigail referred to David with the title of
Lord, gave him the food and supplies, and left the decision in his hands. There was no yelling, no threats, and no
wheeling and dealing. Because of the way she handled the situation, David changed his mind about what he was going to do. Later, after Nabal died, David even took Abigail for his wife because he admired her wisdom and courage so much.
When we choose to be a hero, we must do so courageously but we must also
do so humbly. Those two things are hard
to put together sometimes, but we see them here in Abigail. When we choose to make our beliefs known, we
cannot force them upon others. We cannot
make them change their minds. I think
that is one of the biggest mistakes Christians have made throughout
history. We approach people with a lack
of humility. We know we are right and we
are going to make them believe it even if we have to drive it into their
heads. God never calls us to convert people,
because only His Holy Spirit can do that.
He calls us to tell them and witness to them by the way we love
them. I have had to learn to allow
people to disagree with me and still show them the love of Jesus. Then I must pray that somehow, by my example
and teaching, they can see the truth.
So you want to be a hero? It doesn’t
take superpowers. It just takes common
ordinary people, like Abigail, and like you and me, who are willing to do the
right thing. The best part is that God
is with us and will give us what we need to be successful when we are willing
to be a hero. You may be an unsung
hero. You may not get any medals,
trophies, or songs written about you, but you may also change a life, and there
is no greater reward than that.
